Life's a Ball': Ian Liversedge: The Highs and Lows of a Football Physio

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After taking advice from a number of physios, he kept the menu heavy with carbs and proteins, cereal, wholemeal toast and fresh fruit. example of this is the performance decisions made by the support team need professional acceptance. Key decisions, such as when a player can return, should not be tainted by the opinion of the manager.” last season was very harrowing, but relegation isn’t nice. I got relegated at Oldham and I got relegated at Stoke and now I’ve been relegated at Tranmere.”

Over that time, physiotherapy has come on leaps and bounds through the development of sport science – something which Liversedge has witnessed first-hand during his career. Last May – during the Football Medical Association Conference dinner – we were informed that 12 people in the game had already lost their jobs. I can recall at breakfast the following morning asking Alan Smith, former England and Sheffield Wednesday sponge man, who those people were. He informed me his own son was one of three medical staff shown the door by the manager at Hillsborough. Mourinho later defended his position, saying: “Every week I face a decision about the bench. I have to choose. With the medical department, only two can go on the bench and we have more than a dozen.” He said: “We had already made a substitution but Hodge had to come off with his cut. Hoddle played on with padding over the wound and did very well, both from a footballing and bravery point of view. was full, full-on. It’s like it is now in the Premier League, it’s a full-on job. Except the difference is, now, there’s three or four of them doing it, I was the only one doing it.”We haven’t quite reached the end of the club season and again we see mass culls of staff effecting people’s livelihoods. Every now and again we get the bolt out the blue departures when physios, like managers, are dispensed with.

To recall, Carneiro, and head physiotherapist Jon Fearn, went onto the field to treat the injured Eden Hazard when twice summoned on by referee Michael Oliver. Fred gives a good example of how he had to use his judgement during a game between England and Yugoslavia when Steve Hodge and Glenn Hoddle clashed heads, with manager Bobby Robson trusting his judgement. In an interview for the England vs Brazil Rous Cup matchday programme in 1987, he gave an insight into the England job, one which is at the top level of football.

A number of famous or long-serving physios have had their theories on the subject published either through books, written papers or interviews. job is frequently as liaison between the doctors who are there for medical illness and the manager who selects and trains the team. Cech played with a rugby-style head guard ever since and that protected the areas of his skull weakened by the collision. Liversedge would leave the Toon for Oldham Athletic in 1984 and remain at Boundary Park until the mid-90s. During this period, under the stewardship of the legendary Joe Royle, Latics enjoyed their heyday and several moments in the sun. He said: “At smaller lower league clubs, there may be only one physio and they will have a very close working relationship with the manager.

In 2006, fans witnessed one of the worst injuries in football history during the Reading v Chelsea game at the Madjeski Stadium. Later in that same summer of Liversedge’s arrival, there would be another arrival in the North East. This time, though, it was from the South coast as the Magpies secured the services of Kevin Keegan from Southampton – a time which Ian remembers fondly. He says: “Communication and trust is key to the partnership between a manager and physio, or the medical staff. Special interests: Non specialist airway management, complex patient management and clinical education Special interests: Anaesthesia for spinal surgery, research underpinning educational activities, persistent effects of anaesthetics on the nervous systemDuring the Football Medical Association Conference dinner last May, we were informed that 12 people in the game had already lost their jobs ahead of the next season during the final few weeks of the current. He has taken over physiotherapy duties from Lee Martin, who is leaving by mutual consent and is set to run his own practice. Gary takes up the story: “We had to win at Anfield by two clear goals to win the Football League Championship.Â